Nikhat Shaikh

Nikhat Shaikh is the Director of SNEHA’s Prevention of Violence against Women and Children programme (Strategy and Implementation). She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) with Family and Child Welfare as her specialization. She has over two decades of experience in the social sector working on the prevention of gender-based violence, particularly through crisis intervention and counselling for survivors of violence, working with men perpetrators, strengthening public systems response on GBV and qualitative research. She is a master trainer on issues of gender-based violence with a focus on building capacity of health care providers, legal and law enforcement agencies, sensitizing them for a coordinated response. She has proven ability in training police and cadets across Maharashtra while working with Special Cell to help women and children, a joint programme of Maharashtra police and TISS. In her previous role at SNEHA, as Research Consultant, she supported the research unit in designing and conducting qualitative research studies and evaluation for evidence-based practice and policy. Her area of research includes motivation of frontline workers and community volunteers, adolescent health, community engagement and gender-based violence.